Interview

Vampire novels are all the
rage now. Did this help to inspire you
or did you imagine a different kind of vampire from the beginning?

I've been reading fantasy my entiire
life, I've always had a thing for historical fiction; particularly the kind
where the heroine or hero is running round with a couple of daggers and
something very nasty is going on in the background. And I terrified myself for
weeks as a small child with an adult vampire novel so I'm surprised I didn't
write this sooner. But it took a while to nail the plot down.

Also,
I wasn't even sure Tycho was a vampire when he swirled his way into my head,
dressed entirely in black leather and velvet and carrying his daggers. All I
knew was he lived for the dark, feared the moon and had lost his memories. And
to be honest I'm still not sure he is. At least not in the pure Twilight sense.

What
I wanted to do was a vampire ur-myth.

A
story that explained how what we call vampires reached Europe, where they came
from and what they were. That's the back ground to Tycho's personal story. He's
the first vampire in Europe [there's a theory that says vamire's are mentioned
in an 11th century Russian manuscript but it's probably a mistranslation.]

Obviously
he doesn't know what he is; just as he doesn't know yet what is powers are, or
that he can transfer them to other people. He's simply him and not at all happy
about that. What he really is becomes clear later. Although there are clues in
the first book.

What
would you do if you were invisible for a day?

It's one of those great what ifs, and
most people joke that they'd rob a bank or empty the nearest jewellery store,
or hangout unseen in the dressing room of some incredibly hot Hollywood
star, or go see what their friends and
family really say about them when they're not around...

But
realistically, most people would probably panic.

I'd
spend the entire first day worried I'd turned into a ghost, or was locked in
some weird limbo where no one could see me or hear me and I would never escape.
Around the time I became visible again I'm either be totally insane or getting
used to it and ready to have some fun. At least that was my reasoning while
making Tycho come to terms with his new powers. If weird powers came with an
instrution manual that would be different. Then, I'd probably rob the bank, and
become an unseen assassin.

You grew up in the Far East,
Britain, and Scandinavia. Where did the
idea to set a vampire novel set in Italy come from? Did you travel there a lot before you came up
with the idea or afterwards to do research?

As a child I went to Venice a few times
in high Summer. It was always hot, the sun blinding on the wide expanse of the
Grand Canal, the water in the little canals behind the big buildings stinking
and often green. Venice is old and fabulously beautiful, but there is also
something creepy about it. A really disconcerting feeling that you're in one of
the strangest places in the world.

And
on a practical level you are. Canals instead
of streets. No cars; an entire city that walks or takes boats. And so thick
with history that something has happened on every slab of every square. But
it's more than that And when the fog fills lagoon you can believe it's the only
island in the world. The only city. That it is the world. As a child - a
strange one, admittedly - I came up with the idea that the water of the lagoon
stopped the ghosts in Venice from escaping. That was why it felt so odd. In
Venice ghosts outnumber the living. And when you walk through the city you're
walking not just through history but ghosts everywhere.

I
went back in my teens, and was shocked by how dark and tortured Venetian art
was. At least the pictures on show in churches and the Ducal palace. For ever
beautiful, red-headed Titan nude there were three painting of men being
tortured, murdered, exiled... I began to see where the ghosts came from.

The
Fallen Blade is not a ghost story. But that sheer sense of strangeness was in
my head when I began thinking about Tycho. And there seemed only one place I
could set his story.

Obviously,
reseaching the book was fantastic fun. So far I've made three trips in the last
two years, walking the backstreets, using waterbuses to navigate from one part
of the city to another. A lot of it was spent sitting in cafes with a notebook,
thinking, 'Ah, so that's what Lady Giulietta looks like.' Or that house there
is obviously where Lord Atilo lives. I'm now half way through the next part of
Tycho's story, The Outcast Blade, so I'll be going back soon.

What do you do when you’re not
writing?

I'm always writing, sometimes in my head
if I can't get to my laptop. Often on my iphone or the nearest scrap of paper.
I still have a novel outline I wrote on a restaurant napkin because it was the
only thing I could find to write on.

I
work in cafes and bars and on trains, and occasionally on planes and in
airports and public parks. I'm writing
this in a cafe in West London while waiting for a friend. When not writing I'm
reading, walking or riding my motorbike. Also drinking, arguing with friends or
having sex (although I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that.) The bikes a
Triumph Bonneville that I've had made all black and I use it to belt round the
backroads near my house in Winchester. There's a certain purity and sanity that
comes from riding a motorbike, at least there is for me. It locks you into the
moment. And you're really know you're in the zone when you feel the world stay
still and the world flow around you. I always write better after riding. This
is another reason I do it.

I
suppose if I'm not writing, reading or riding then I'm probably travelling or
cooking, which is something else that works for me. Food tends to play a large
part in my books.

Do you have a favorite
character?

I like all the characters, even the bad
ones. But Lady Giulietta, red-haired and stroppy, a pawn in her families power
games, the orginal medieval poor little rich girl who decides to fight back is
right up there for me. And so, obviously enough, is Tycho. He's the most fun
but also hardest to write because he's not quite human and I have to keep that
in mind. There's a strangeness to how he sees the world. And I have to remind
myself - and the readers - that how he sees the world is not how the rest of us
see it, for all he's got human failing and emotions in the mix.

The
other one I really like is Duchess Alexa. I think there's a lot more going on
with her than anyone around her realises. How old is she? Why goes she always
wear a veil? How come she looks so young? This is a woman who likes to watch
the world through the eyes of a bat and poison her ememies. Yet is so devoted
to her niece, Lady Giulietta, that she'll do anything for her. That's Alexa's
weakness, of course.